A Glib Jarvis And Fau's Little Big Man

FAU coach Mike Jarvis is getting pretty good at his post-game press conferences. If he keeps it up, he will rival The Voice when it comes to that.

The two are pretty similar in a lot of ways, and one is that they are usually better for quotes after a loss than after a win.

That was particularly true after the Hurricanes ran over and through the Owls Saturday. -

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Jarvis began by bemoaning the fact that his team (aside from Ray Taylor) seemed intimidated by Miami, and that led to poor rebounding and poor shooting.

He had a great line about players needing to use their asses to help box out under the basket.

His analysis was dead-on ? the Owls did play timid, especially after the Canes swatted away a couple shots and out-muscled them for some rebounds.

Instead of responding by becoming more aggressive, they got gun-shy.

Jarvis only brought one player to the podium after the game. And that was Taylor, who in the space of 10 games has become the leader, face, heart and soul of this team. -

- The Little Big Man is the only one who didn?t appear intimidated by the Canes or by playing in the BankAtlantic Center, and Jarvis had no problem putting the fate of the team on Taylor?s 5-foot-5 shoulders for years to come.

Jarvis had some good lines, saying that at that height, Taylor ?won?t leave early for the NBA Draft,? meaning he will be around to lead the team for the next 3 1/2 years.

That?s a good thing for the Owls and their fans.

Taylor opened a lot of eyes Saturday. While Miami was shutting down the rest of the Owls, they did not have an answer for Taylor, who was fearless once again, driving through them and coming up with 23 points.

Jarvis lobbied hard to get invited back to the Orange Bowl Classic, which seems to have settled on Miami and Florida and needs two other teams each year.

But FAU needs to do what Richmond did in the second game ? pull an upset or at least show you can play with the big boys.

The Owls aren?t there yet, so they may not get an invited next year. But if the kids take the lead from Taylor, they could be back.